Meet the Discovery RE Team

Alison Harris: Senior Associate Consultant

Alison left a successful career in motor industry management to follow her dream and qualified with a P.G.C.E. as a Primary teacher in 2000. In her first post-NQT year, she began leading RE in her primary school and achieved outstanding for the both the RE teaching and learning, and her leadership of the subject, in three successive Statutory Inspections of Anglican and Methodist Schools (SIAMS).

In 2014 she also achieved the National Professional Qualification for Senior Leadership which entailed embedding new and independent learning strategies across the school, identifying core subject assessment issues and supporting staff to raise achievement. She has also supported other schools in school leadership and raising standards in RE and preparation for inspections. She also lectures in RE for many initial teacher training organisations.

Alison is a member of Bournemouth SACRE and advises two other SACREs. She has an MA in Coaching and Mentoring with a dissertation on embedding spirituality into the Primary Curriculum. Alison’s passion is ensuring that the knowledge and understanding children gain through exciting and high-quality, investigative RE leads them to be more discerning and come to know themselves and be sure of their own beliefs and morals.

David Rees: Associate Consultant

David has been an RE teacher for 25 years. In that time he has been an Advanced Skills RE teacher, a member of SACRE and an adviser to local authorities.  He has been a successful RE Head of Department and achieved excellent GCSE results and has been graded outstanding in 2 separate OFSTED inspections. He is also a member of Poole SACRE.

David has been involved in reviewing and amending the locally agreed RE syllabus for Bournemouth and Poole and has led numerous workshops for Key Stages 1-4 as well as planning Syllabus launch conferences.  He has been involved in writing schemes of work, developing introductory units and leading training on world religions and led training for aspiring teachers as well as non-specialists and RE specialists alike, focusing on teaching creative and challenging RE.

David believes RE is a subject that helps to develop key skills and attitudes like open-mindedness, sensitivity and reflection.  These skills transfer to all aspects of life and help to encourage a desire to challenge prejudices, to make a difference in the world and to care and show respect for all.

Katie Gumbrell: Associate Consultant

Initially terrified of teaching RE, Katie quickly realised that high-quality RE teaching can have a profound effect on children and their attitudes to those with different world-views from their own.  She feels that RE has a massively significant role to play in helping children to understand the world around them, from their local communities to global issues affecting us all.

Discovery RE was invaluable to Katie as she developed an RE curriculum in a challenging school, as it allowed her colleagues to get on with the job of teaching, rather than worry about planning and resourcing lessons. RE progressed from being non-existent in pockets of the school to become a subject that children across the phases enjoyed and talked about with enthusiasm.

Katie started working with the Discovery RE team because she wants to share her enthusiasm and empathy with those struggling to get started with RE.

John Meredith: Associate Consultant

John has worked in primary education for over 20 years, both in England and Wales, first as a teacher, Deputy Headteacher, Acting Headteacher and then later as a Diocesan Schools Consultant for the Diocese of Swansea and Brecon. John also works for the Church in Wales as Diocesan Director of Education for the Diocese of Swansea and Brecon on a part-time basis and as a registered assessor for the SMSC Quality Mark.

John is always keen to study and is a present studying ‘Theology for Life’ with St Padarn’s Institute and is in the process of becoming a SIAMS inspector and critical reader. John is a member of a number of SACRE and WASACRE, as well as working with Welsh Government on curriculum development and is a member of the Church in Wales’s curriculum review team. John is working on developing and incorporating digital literacy into RE teaching.

John has a keen interest in Values Education, after working at a pioneer school in England, transferring these skills whistle working in schools in Wales, focusing on school ethos and vision. John has recently won a Christian Aid Diamond Award for his work as schools innovator.

John is a strong advocate of the enquiry-approach in RE which enables children to ask the ‘Big Questions’. After studying for a Farmington Scholarship into the questions the children ask in RE lessons. He is passionate and excited about teaching RE and exploring spirituality from the pupils own unique starting points as well as developing thinking skills. John finds that once familiar with these concepts, teachers at whatever level are able to apply the skills to many other areas of the curriculum.

PGCE

Bill Moore: Associate Consultant

Bill has taught and advised on RE and PSHE for over 30 years and is currently teaching 0.4 RE in a local secondary school in Buckinghamshire and advising two SACREs. He has a reputation as a thought-provoking and engaging trainer, presenter and speaker. His passion for RE and SMSC lies in their impact on the thinking and being of pupils and their capacity to enable a questioning and reflective approach to learning and life. Bill uses P4C, stilling and ‘Conceptual Creativity’ to good effect in his teaching and training to promote these facets of learning.

Bill was RE and PSHE Adviser in Buckinghamshire for 15 years working with all types of school. In that time he was Chair of the National Association of SACREs from 2009 to 2011, working with the RE Council, DfE and what was then QCDA developing national guidance and materials. Since 2014, Bill has become an independent consultant and returned to the classroom 2 days a week, which roots his other work in the realities of school life. He takes over this year as Chair of AREIAC, the national RE advisers’ association.

According to Bill, education is about humanisation – growing and developing as people, a process as much for the teachers as for the pupils. Not surprisingly, then, he sees RE as the most important subject in the curriculum and SMSC as what he calls the ‘Heineken factor’ of education! Working with Discovery RE will help teachers develop greater confidence in planning and teaching religious education.

Rachel Swaby: Associate Consultant

After working in international IT recruitment as a Quality Assurance Manager for a number of years, Rachel embarked on a teaching career. She qualified in 2004 and began as a Computing lead in an East London primary school which is a role she has maintained throughout. Rachel’s decision to change careers was due to her passion to the life of others through educating and inspiring the next generation. In particular, those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Rachel has taught in a number of schools across London and held various roles including KS2 lead. For the latter part of her career, Rachel held part-time positions whilst raising her young family. More recent roles include teaching KS3 and KS4 pupils unable to access mainstream schools education and some work in Pupil Referral Units.

Since leaving the classroom, Rachel works for an education charity supporting schools with Christian collective worship, RE lessons and SMSC provision. She is also a qualified freelance Financial Education Coach.

If Rachel can find any spare time, you’ll find her running around the local common or spending time with her husband and two sons. Rachel is also a caring cat lover and enjoys reading and musical theatre.